Surgery

Well, I did it. To be honest, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. Not that it was a piece of cake, by any means – but all in all, it was not that bad.

Rob picked me up at 5:30 in the morning and drove me to the hospital for my 6:00 check in. The waiting room was quite nice, with some really good photographs hanging on the walls. I didn’t have much time to enjoy them, though, as the nurse came out within 5 minutes of my arrival to lead me back into the prep-room. I said goodbye to Rob and followed the nurse in.

The prep-room was just a big room with lots of smaller areas partitioned off with hanging curtains. I was shown to the area assigned to me and told to change into the hospital gown (yes, the kind that gaps open in the back). It was a little unnerving getting undressed; I had the curtain closed, but it had gaps all around, and there were a lot of people in the room.

Once I was comfortably settled into the hospital bed things got rolling. One by one, each doctor, nurse, and orderly came to introduce themselves to me and explain what roll they would have in the surgery. Each one made a point of making sure they knew who I was and what I was there for, so I had no fear of getting the wrong procedure done. They also made sure that I understood what they were going to do, and always asked if I had any questions.

I had a really bad migraine that morning (of course I would) so the anesthesiologist said she would give me something for that along with the “cocktail” she originally planned to give me. I don’t know what it was, but it sure knocked me out. One minute I’m watching her put the needle into my IV and the next minute I’m throwing up in the recovery room! And let me tell you, that was really disorienting. It took me several minutes to figure out what had happened.

All the doctors, nurses, and orderlies had told me all about how they would wheel me in to the operating room, which would have all kinds of equipment and lights and what not. They said they would probably have me move myself to the other table, and that there would be lots of commotion going on around me. The anesthesiologist would “come at me” with the mask to knock me out. It all sounded so interesting and confusing.

And I missed the whole thing.